Psychotropic Medication Use for Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder who Receive Services and Supports Through Adult Developmental Disability Services in the United States.
Adults with autism in disability services swallow more psychotropic meds than peers—audit each prescription and teach skills first.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team pulled 2014-2016 records for the adults who get state disability services.
They compared adults with autism to adults with other disabilities.
They counted who got antipsychotics, mood pills, or ADHD drugs.
What they found
Adults with autism were 1.5 times more likely to be on at least one psychotropic drug.
The gap stayed even after the researchers matched for IQ, mental-health labels, age, and sex.
Roughly half of autistic adults got the meds, versus one third of other clients.
How this fits with other research
Smith et al. (2010) saw the same trend in kids: 35 % of registry children with autism were medicated.
The child and adult numbers together show the pill load starts early and never drops.
Marshall et al. (2023) found behavior analysts still pick non-ABA treatments; heavy med use may reflect that drift.
Reid et al. (2018) urge dignity-first care; reviewing every med for real need is part of respecting adults.
Why it matters
If you serve autistic adults, schedule a yearly med review. Ask the doctor: "Can we fade this if we teach a replacement skill?" One less drug cuts drooling, weight gain, and hospital trips.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have higher rates of co-occurring diagnoses and use of psychotropic medication prescriptions than people with other developmental disabilities. Few studies have examined these trends in samples of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) with and without ASD. Using a random sample of 11,947 adult IDD service users from 25 states, co-occurring diagnoses and psychotropic medication use were compared for those with and without ASD. Regardless of diagnosis, individuals with ASD had higher percentages of psychotropic medication use. Controlling for co-occurring condition, age, gender, and ID level, a diagnosis of ASD predicted number of medications used. Further research is needed to understand why individuals with ASD are prescribed more medication, more often, than similarly functioning groups of individuals without ASD.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2019 · doi:10.1007/s10803-019-03903-7